The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-09
NATURES MANURES.
FsTtilizing Exhausted Soil by Flowing
Under Rapidly Growing Crops.

4
Under Rapidly Growing Crops.
The recuperation of soils by natures
means is not swift process. The for
nation of the soil originally required
ages of time. First the rock must be
broken down and disintegrated. Then
plants must gradually absorb such por-
lions as are soluble in water or else
present in the atmosphere, and the
plants by decay are reduced to humus.
Then the real work of soil-building
commences in earnest. So important
is this humus in the soil that the
average soil from which two inches in
thickness is removed remains for a long
period infertile, unless specially treated.
The reason of this is, the humus in
soils, unless mixed artifcially with the
under soil, remains next the surface.
The principal offices of humus are, it
absorbs and retains moisture, furnishes
carbon and the mineral elements in de-
cayed vegetation in a soluble state to
plants, and especially is the prime
agent in carrying on chemical trans
formations in the soil, evolving.
through heat and moisture, carbon,
oxygen and hydrogen, and also nitrogen
in soluble form for the use of plants.
Hence the value of grass and forage
plants that may be fed to animals or
turned under, enriching the soil by their
constituents, or by being plowed under.
Thus in all long cultivated soils the
humus is intimately mixed with the soil
to the depth of blowing, while in soils
never plowed, as in woodland, the
humus, until thoroughly decayed, re-
mains as the top layer of the soil to a
greater or less depth, according to the
amount annually deposited.
Very few farms make sufficient ma
nure from the animals fed to properly
manure the soil, unless stocked to its
full capacity, and then only when great
care is taken to save and make manure
with all its constituents intact. This
is laborious work, and costly as well.
Hence the utility and economy of plow-
ing under sward and other green crops,
as part of the rotation of the soil. BY
this means the whole value of the crop
is returned to the soil, while in the
feeding of animals only minor part is
so returned. Hence. again, as stated
lately by US, the value of covered fall
lows, rather than of naked ones, when
a fallow is considered absolutely neces-
sary.
The more advanced farmers of the
country are adverse to allowing land to
be naked at all. except during the time
a crop is springing up. When so al
lowed, rains wash away the soil, the
sun bakes the land, and aside from the
mechanical disintegration and cleaning
the soil of weeds, little other good is
accomplished.
{ Some of the best farmers, indeed,
sow rye and clover among corn, at the
last blowing. the same to be turned
under at the next blowing, preparatory
to another crop. This blowing under
of as many crops as possible is the
natural system of manuring. and very
near to natures plan, except that the
renovation is far swifter. In this nat
ural system of manuring, the faster
growing crop may be, the better the
results, and with modern plows and
attachments for dragging under trash.
little difficulty is experienced in cover
ing under heavy growth of any plant,
even so rank grower as the cow-pea
of the South. In no portion of the |
country is the covering of the soil,
in the winter, more necessary,
if only to prevent washing away of the
soil, by which vast quantities of humus
may be eliminated therefromL Farm
/teld and SfoekmaB.